The 2022 ADCC Award Winners Have Been Announced!

Learn who took home the awards for best athlete, best match, best takedown and fastes submission at the 2022 ADCC World Championships!

Oct 20, 2022 by Michael Sears

The 2022 ADCC Award Winners Have Been Announced!

As the dust settles after the 2022 ADCC World Championships, ADCC has released the winners of their four prestigious awards given out at every ADCC Worlds. The awards are for best athlete, best takedown, best match and fastest submission.

This ADCC was one of the most exciting grappling events of all time, and there was no doubt a lot of competition for some of these awards. Here are the winners -

Best Athlete and Fastest Submission - Gordon Ryan

Gordon Ryan takes home two awards this year, for best athlete and quickest submission. The best athlete award was almost a given considering he was the first athlete to win the superfight and his weight division in the same year, and he did it in dominating fashion.

"It's really awesome that I got the fastest submission and the best fighter. I'm not really surprised to be honest, but I'm sure everyone who hates me is super happy with that. Also, the fact that New Wave took three out of four awards, including Nicholas Meregali for best takedown, even though he has only been training wrestling with John for three months, that's also incredible. I'm sure everyone is going to be real pumped about that." Gordon Ryan

Watch the fastest submission of ADCC 2022 here -

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Best Takedown - Nicholas Meregali

Nobody would have guessed a year ago that Nicholas Meregali would be winning the best takedown award for ADCC 2022, but with just a few months of no-gi training the reigning gi absolute world champion looked incredible at the tournament. Taking home a bronze medal in his weight division and a silver in the absolute in his ADCC debut, Nicholas made a statement that he is going to be a force in the no-gi scene going forward.

"If I got the best throw after only five months of wrestling training, imagine after another two years. 2024 is going to be fun." Nicholas Meregali

Watch the absolute division semifinal where the takedown took place here -

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Best Match - Vagner Rocha vs Izaak Michell

This first round matchup between the ADCC veteran Vagner Rocha and Izaak Michell in his ADCC debut was a back and forth match that ended in a referee decision that probably could have gone either way. Rocha advanced and went on to place third in the 88kg division.

"This is such a huge honor to receive such a big award for this amazing event. ADCC is the biggest event and only happens every two years. I wish I had won gold but getting the best match of the event is probably the second biggest honor, and I'm very grateful to be still involved and to have participated in the biggest event of all time." Vagner Rocha

"It is an honor and a privilege to receive the best match of the tournament award. Thank you to ADCC, Mo Jassim, all the staff and everyone who attended. A big part of me never thought I'd make anything of myself, so to win this award on the biggest event in our history, the olympics of our sport, it's a dream come true." Izaak Michell

Watch the best match of ADCC 2022 here -